The results have been revealed for the 2009 DVD Critics Awards, which are presented every year (for the last five years) by Home Media Magazine, honoring DVD and Blu-ray titles from the previous year. The awards are usually held in conjunction with the Home Entertainment Summit, but the latter has been delayed due to scheduling conflicts. Nonetheless, the awards were given out and the critically acclaimed and much-loved Batman film, The Dark Knight, scooped up the most awards.

For the first time in five years, a TV DVD set has taken the top “2009 Critics Awards’ Title of the Year” in the form of The Sopranos: The Complete Series, which also earned the award for Best Collection/Multidisc set. But apart from that, The Dark Knight dominated with four awards. The awards were a mix of critics and judges’ votes, and online consumers (the latter in special categories such as “Best Superhero Title”). It’s not a surprise to hear that TDK dominated in the consumer categories.

Take a look at just how well TDK did, along with the rest of the results below:

2009 DVD Critics Award Winners:

• Title of the Year: The Sopranos: The Complete Series, HBO Home Entertainment
• Best Theatrical Title: The Dark Knight, Warner Home Video
• Best TV DVD: Mad Men: Season One, Lionsgate
• Best Classic/Catalog Title: The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration Gift Set, Paramount Home Entertainment
• Best Collection/Multidisc Set: The Sopranos: The Complete Series, HBO Home Entertainment
• Best Nonfiction Title: Young @ Heart, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
• Best Animation Title: Wall-E, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
• Best Kidvid Title: Tinker Bell, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
• Best Nontheatrical Title: Stargate: Continuum, Fox/MGM
• Best Extended Cut/Director’s Cut: Step Brothers, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• Best Extras: Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Universal Studios Home Entertainment
• Best Packaging: Masters of Horror: Season Two, Anchor Bay Entertainment
• Best Blu-ray Disc: Planet of the Apes: 40-Year Evolution, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Consumer’s Choice Categories:

• Consumer Favorite DVD/Blu-ray Release: The Dark Knight, Warner Home Video
• Funniest DVD/Blu-ray: Robot Chicken: Star Wars, Warner Home Video
• Best Action Title: The Dark Knight, Warner Home Video
• Best Sci-Fi Title: Wall-E, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
• Best Superhero Title: The Dark Knight, Warner Home Video
• Best Western Title: 3:10 to Yuma, Lionsgate
• Best Period Piece: Band of Brothers (Blu-ray), HBO Home Entertainment
• Best Single Extra: The Making-Of Documentary on Sleeping Beauty: Platinum Edition, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

I bought The Dark Knight Special Edition DVD as soon as it came out late last year, and have watched it (and its excellent special features) many times since. It’s really no surprise it won so many of these awards, considering how much of a hit it was with critics and fans alike. I’m just surprised people didn’t try to vote for it in the comedy category – you know, because some of The Joker’s lines were hilarious…

What do you think of the results of the 2009 DVD Critics Awards? Was The Dark Knight worthy of winning the most awards? I think we know the answer to that, but let us know anyway.

Source: HomeMediaEntertainment (thanks to ScreenCrave)

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The 2009 Golden Globe Nominations have been officially announced and it looks like The Dark Knight has been almost totally snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

That’s right folks, The Dark Knight received just one nomination: a Best Supporting Actor nod for Heath Ledger’s groundbreaking (and freaky) turn as The Joker. No Best Director nomination for Chris Nolan; no Best Screenplay nomination for Chris and Jonathan Nolan; no Best Original Score nomination (although Dark Knight composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard are both nominated in that category for work on two other films).

So, want to see which films stole the slots that rightfully belong to TDK? Check out the  list of the 2009 Golden Globe Nominees in film:

BEST DRAMA
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Revolutionary Road
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

ACTOR (DRAMA)
Leonardo DiCaprio – Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

ACTRESS (DRAMA)
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kristin Scott Thomas – I’ve Loved You So Long
Kate Winslet – Revolutionary Road

BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges

ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Javier Bardem – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Colin Farrell – In Bruges
James Franco – Pineapple Express
Dustin Hoffman – Last Chance Harvey
Brendan Gleeson – In Bruges

ACTRESS (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky
Frances McDormand – Burn After Reading
Meryl Streep – Mamma Mia!
Emma Thompson – Last Chance Harvey
Rebecca Hall – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Gomorrah
I’ve Loved You So Long
Waltz with Bashir
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Everlasting Moments

ANIMATED FILM
Wall-E
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Tom Cruise – Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Ralph Fiennes – The Duchess

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – Doubt
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Kate Winslet – The Reader

DIRECTOR
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes – Revolutionary Road

SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy – Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare – The Reader
Peter Morgan – Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley – Doubt

ORIGINAL SCORE
James Newton Howard – Defiance
Alexandre Desplat – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
A.R. Rahman – Slumdog Millionaire
Hans Zimmer – Frost/Nixon
Clint Eastwood – Changeling

ORIGINAL SONG
“Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel / Thomas Newman – Wall-E
“Gran Torino” by Clint Eastwood / Kyle Eastwood – Gran Torino
“I Thought I’d Lost You” by Miley Cyrus – Bolt
“Once in a Lifetime” by Beyoncé Knowles – Cadillac Records
“The Wrestler” by Bruce Springsteen – The Wrestler

So there’s a lot on this list I’m OK with (like Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise receiving Supporting Actor Comedy nominations for Tropic Thunder, or Kung-Fu Panda getting a nod for Best Animated Film); there are some things on this list I couldn’t care less about (Best Musical or Comedy, anyone?); and there definitely some things on this list that make my head just want to explode.

Forgetting my obvious (and aforementioned) problem with the fact that The Dark Knight has been shut out of nearly every relevant category, I think that a film as wonderful as Let The Right One In was should have earned a Best Foreign Language Film nomination. And how Colin Farrell got a Best Comedy Actor Nod for In Bruges (which also got a Best Picture Comedy nod) will forever be beyond me.

On the flip side, James Franco getting a Best Comedy Actor nod for Pineapple Express is just plain awesome; it’s also good to see Mickey Rourke back on the rise, earning a nomination for his apparently soul-wrenching turn  as a washed up athlete in The Wrestler (which I have yet to see). However it’s strange as hell that after so much early buzz Clint Eastwood’s old-man-turned-vigilante drama Gran Torino only got one nomination… for Best Original Song.

Other than that, it seems to be award season as usual. No surprise that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is leading the pack in nominations (after all the tremendous buzz), or that a Sam Mendes domestic life drama (Revolutionary Road) is also raking in the nominations. I haven’t seen Frost/Nixon, but it seems to have impressed the right people, because it’s coming out of left field to grab up a handful of nominations. Might have to get out and see that before Oscar season rolls around.

Speaking of the little gold guy, what do you think about The Dark Knight’s chances at the 2009 Academy Awards, now that you’ve seen the Golden Globe nominations? Do you agree with the list of nominees, or do you feel some great films didn’t get the recognition they deserve? Sound off and let us know.

(You can read the full list of Golden Globe Nominees (Film and Television) by clicking here)

Source: First Showing

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I know that people have asked why we don’t have a regular podcast here at Screen Rant. I made an attempt about a year ago to do a weekly podcast before we had a great stable of writers, and I found it extremely difficult to do alone.

So what about now, you ask? Now it’s an issue of time, or rather not enough of it, plus trying to coordinate a time that most of us can get together when we are located across the country (with Niall in the UK!).

However this week Cinemablend was nice enough to invite me to join their regular weekly podcast “The Weekly Blend” and it was a lot of fun. Rafe, Margaret and Tim over there are all very cool and fun to chat with about our favorite topic: movies.

I thought it went pretty well and it actually gave me a little kick in the pants as far as thinking more seriously about doing a regular podcast here at Screen Rant (don’t hold your breath, though). My next podcast appearance will probably be over at /Film some time in the next few weeks.

This week’s discussion included movies that opened this week (including Babylon A.D., Disaster Movie, Traitor and College) but the main topic was the 2008 Summer movie season. What we liked or disliked, surprises and disappointments. How did The Dark Knight compare to Iron Man, why didn’t The Incredible Hulk do any better, Kung Fu Panda vs Wall-E, and more.

You can listen to it right here, and I’d love to hear what you think!

Click here to listen to the podcast.

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It’s almost September and that means that the big summer movie season of 2008 is finally over – but what a summer it’s been!

2008 delivered the kind of summer that superhero and action movie geeks dream of – this is the year that brought us three bonafide superhero movies: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and what was that third one… oh yeah: The Dark Knight.

We also had the chance to see the long awaited Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the latest Pixar flick Wall-E, Will Smith as a superhero in Hancock, Angelina Jolie as an assassin in Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army. To keep us laughing we had Tropic Thunder, The Pineapple Express (which I haven’t seen) and Get Smart.

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight: Summer 2008 box office winner

The Dark Knight was this summer’s box office juggernaut, and no doubt will be the year’s biggest earner. The big surprise of the summer (and the film that kicked it all off) is Iron Man, which came in second and actually beat Indy 4 in the US! That speaks to both how great Iron Man was and how poor an addition the latest Indiana Jones movie was to the original trilogy.

Iron Man: Surprise hit of the 2008 Summer movie season

Here are the top ten movies this summer based on US box office:

1. The Dark Knight – $493.7MM
2. Iron Man – $317.6MM
3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – $315.3MM
4. Hancock – $226.5MM
5. Wall-E – $216.8MM
6. Kung Fu Panda – $213MM
7. Sex and the City (yeah, I know) – $152.4MM
8. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – $141.6MM
9. The Incredible Hulk – $134.4MM
10. Wanted – $133.8MM

One big suprise in the above list is Pixar’s Wall-E: I’m really shocked that the R-rating-pushing, PG-13 and mediocre (according to most critics) Hancock actually beat the family friendly Pixar film. Also surprising is that Kung Fu Panda made almost as much as the Wall-E. It looks like despite the universally rave reviews for Wall-E, that the overly message-heavy plot of the movie wasn’t as much of a winner with families as other of their films like The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. Heck, even Cars (considered by many to be Pixar’s weakest film) made more money than Wall-E at the box office.

Wall-E: Below Summer box office expectations?

I’ll take a moment to toot my own horn and point out that I was one of the lone voices pointing out the fact that Wall-E was too heavy handed with its messages.

Also, despite the “cool factor,” Wanted didn’t manage to beat underdog summer flick The Incredible Hulk. I guess more people thought it was ridiculous (as I did) than thought it was “awesome, dude!”. However superhero movie fans across the land can weep in unison at the fact that Hulk was not able to defeat three hip, New York City powershopping babes on the prowl for true love.

Summer 2008: The Incredible Hulk did not go down without a fight

How the heck Sex in the City made into that list is beyond me.

Movies worth noting that are missing from that top 10 list include The Happening (huge stinker for Shyamalan), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (couldn’t bring myself to watch it), 10,000 B.C. (do I even need to comment on this one?), Speed Racer (LSD trip for kids), and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (too niche, I suppose).

In the “bombed at the box office” category I guess I’d add X-Files: I Want to Believe ($20.7MM) and at only $27MM since opening, for a Star Wars movie, I’d say The Clone Wars didn’t do too well.

All in all I’d say it’s been a pretty damned awesome summer for movie fans, and it’ll be a tough one to top in 2009.

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Short version: Technically Wall-E is the best film Pixar has made – it’s funny and heartwarming, but it’s also the preachiest.

Screen Rant’s Wall-E review

We haven’t given Wall-E as much coverage as some other movie sites, but nonetheless I’d been looking forward to seeing it ever since I saw a panel for the film last summer at the San Diego Comic-Con. In my mind there was no doubt that Pixar would knock another one out of the park with their quality approach to both story and the animation itself.

Well, they certainly succeeded as far as the animation goes – the film surpasses everything Pixar has done to date. Overall I enjoyed the film, but a few things kept it from being Pixar’s best work.

Pixar films have always had a message: Friendship, loyalty, teamwork, the importance of family and helping others – but I’ve never felt the message delivered with a heavy hand… until now. Wall-E (the movie, not the character) is the latest film to jump on the “we’re destroying the Earth” bandwagon – but it also warns against the dangers of sloth, gluttony and Instant Messaging.

Wall-E (the character) is a quirky little robot whose lonely job it is to compress, collect and organize the trash/junk left behind on Earth, which is now deserted by humans. Apparently there was an army of little robots just like our intrepid hero left behind to clean up the Earth after we had literally trashed it to where it was no longer habitable. Apparently it’s been a very long time since we left because he is the only robot left functioning. Somehow (and it is never explained how) he has acquired a personality. I don’t imagine that a trash collecting robot would need to be designed to have a personality to do its menial job.

Wall-E is very cute and we see much of the funny bits that have already been shown in trailers and commercials. We also meet his little buddy – a cockroach which I have to say is very cute, if you can say that about a roach. Wall-E is a collector of odds and ends and has shelves full of not only replacement parts (explaining how he’s managed to survive so long) but a large variety of all kinds of stuff he found interesting including hand mixers, light bulbs, butane lighters, and his favorite: a videotape that contains a scene from an old musical movie (sorry I don’t know which) that shows a dance number and ends with a couple holding hands romantically. This is where we see how lonely he is.

I have to mention right here that the CGI animation in this movie is phenomenal – especially within his “home” I would say that if it was shown outside the context of a CGI movie there is no way I’d be able to tell that it wasn’t an actual movie set populated with real objects. Truly amazing detail and lighting in the rendering. But in this same scene we see for the first time (although it is on a TV screen) actual live actors in a Pixar animated film. While my knee jerk reaction was that I didn’t like seeing them and it pulled me out of the magic of the film, I was prepared to accept it – but what happens later in the film made it make even less sense. I’ll get to that later.

Anyway, one day a giant spaceship arrives (which looked like a cool update of the classic rocket ships from 50’s sci-fi movies). From it comes a super-sleek, egg-shaped robot who we come to know as Eve. She is exploring and scanning the area, and for some reason seems highly paranoid for a robot exploring an abandoned planet, using a powerful weapon to blow the heck out of anything that startles her. She and Wall-E get off to a bit of a rough start but eventually they find a connection, with Wall-E having developed a crush on her.

(Continued…)

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You know, we get so caught up here in the more “grown-up” movies that we really haven’t given Well-E its due. The latest (I’m betting) masterpiece from Pixar opens just a week from now and they’ve put out a new trailer for it.

I think that if you’re a big fan of late 70’s/early 80’s Sci Fi films you’re going to love this movie. Brad Bird from Pixar has stated that they set out to explicitly capture the cinematography and style of the movie of that era. The worst that Pixar has done to date is to make a movie that’s “just” good. Most of their stuff is excellent and I’m really looking forward to this one.

Check out the trailer below.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Wall-E opens on June 27th

Source IGN via FSR

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Ok, I’m done. I’m hereby declaring that there should be a moratorium on any more Short Circuit/Johnny 5 comparisons to Wall-E.

Seriously.

At the WonderCon panel, someone brought the question up to Andrew Stanton, who wrote the script for the new Pixar movie, won and Academy Award for his work on Finding Nemo, and has been involved with writing pretty much ever Pixar movie that’s come out.

His demeanor indicated that he’d already heard the question ad nauseum, and here’s what he had to say:

The inspiration for the character came from two places:

1. The original Pixar Luxo Lamp used in their logo.

No, Wall-E doesn’t look anything like the lamp, what Stanton went on to say is that he wanted the character to be a machine first and a character second, much like the famous lamp. The lamp doesn’t look even remotely human or animal yet its personality comes across brilliantly:

“I wanted to believe that a robot is really there. I wanted to believe he is really a robot and not just a human in a robot shell.”

The initial design concept was that of a robot that was low to the ground so it would have a low center of gravity, a method of locomotion that could get it over any terrain or obstacle, and a way to compact trash efficiently, hence the cube shape.

2. A pair of binoculars at a baseball game.

Yes, folks: binoculars. He said he was at a stadium watching a game when he asked someone to pass their binoculars to him. He started playing with them and seeing how they could be used to express emotion.

He did go on to say that he’d only seen the movie Short Circuit once, and he supposes it could have influenced him on some subconscious level. Really, I thought that statement was just throwing a bone to those who claim he ripped off the design, which is a ludicrous idea IMHO.

The Johnny 5 robot is tall and slender with a thin body elevated high above the treads, with long arms coming off the “shoulders.” While Wall-E is short and stubby, with a cube-shaped body which squats directly on the treads and short little arms that come off the body itself. Maybe while folks are at it they can accuse James Cameron of ripping off Short Circuit for the design of the HK Tank from Terminator 2 (shown here).

Anyway… that’s enough of a rant. To end on a happy note, here’s the latest poster for Wall-E.

Wall-E opens on June 27, 2008.

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Nothing much to say here – just another image of the cute as a button Wall-E from Pixar’s upcoming movie. For a much larger version click on the image above.

Wall-E opens on June 27, 2008.

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Here’s a new promotional image from Pixar’s next awesome movie: Wall-E.

It looks like the trailers we have seen may actually only be showing us the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this movie. I’m betting that most of it will not actually take place on Earth at all, although 95% of what we’ve seen so far takes place there.

It’s a pretty safe bet that Pixar is going to hit it out of the park again with this movie. There’s a part of me deep down inside that wishes desperately that they’d get into live action movies because their animated films are so awesome without exception.

There’s a larger version of the image below…

New Image From Wall-E

You can click on the image above to see a really HUGE version of the picture over at AICN.

I’m really looking forward to this without any reservations whatsoever!

Wall-E opens on June 27, 2008.

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I really hesitate to use words like “adorable” here on the site but hey, if the shoe fits…

It looks like Pixar is going to have another hit on their hands. They’ve released a new trailer for their next CGI-animated film: Wall-E. As are most of their characters, Wall-E is as cute as a button (although he bears and incredibly strong resemblance to “Number 5,” the robot from the 20 year old robot movie Short Circuit.

You can watch the new trailer (courtesy of IGN.com) below.

See? I told he was cute.

Along with the trailer you can also check out a viral site for the film: www.BuynLarge.com, which is supposed to be a corporate website for the sale and manufacture of robots. It has little nuggets of humor buried here in there in the typical Pixar style, such as:

By visiting the Buy n Large web site you instantaneously relinquish all claims against the Buy n Large corporation and any of its vendors and or strategic partners.

I know I’m looking forward to it. Man… it seems like 2008 is going to be a rockin’ year for movies.

Wall-E opens summer 2008.

Source: IGN via /Film

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Click on the image to see a larger version of a new poster for the next Pixar movie Wall-E.

Those guys certainly have a knack for creating cute and endearing characters from the most unusual sources. Heck, if they can make a rat endearing in Ratatouille they can make anything cute. For me, the little guy in the poster evokes images of E.T., and he does share the “all alone” aspect of that character in the film as well.

Unfortunately we’ve got a pretty long wait for Wall-E… it doesn’t open until June 27th, 2008.

Source: IGN via JoBlo

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I’ve loved every single movie Pixar has ever produced and I don’t think that Wall-E is going to be an exception. I was lucky enough to see a few minutes of footage at the San Diego Comic-Con this summer and without a single word of dialog to be heard, the sequence was completely captivating.

A while back a teaser trailer came out that emphasized the creation of the idea for the film more than the film footage itself. It was a great teaser, but if you were hoping for a lot more from this new trailer for Wall-E I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed. While it does have a cute riff on the standard Pixar opening logo, there is only one new scene in the trailer.

It’s good… it’s just not very much.

Wall-E opens Summer 2008.

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Just, wow.

I hadn’t been to the San Diego Comic-Con in about seven years, and this was the first time I went as a member of the press. If I had to pick one word to describe my experience it would have to be:

Overwhelming.

I did have a lot of fun, especially at the parties held after the days’ events. In the photo above are some of the folks I met who run other movie sites that I visit every day. From left to right they’re Jessica from FirstShowing.net, Peter from /Film, John from The Movie Blog, Kevin (crouching) from Cinematical, then there I am in my Slusho t-shirt next to John from Advanced Iron and finally Alex from FirstShowing.net. I also met Jen from Rottentomatoes.com, and folks from Chud.com, Rope of Silicon and other sites.

As just one person, it’s impossible to cover everything movie-related going on at the Con due to overlapping panel times and the fact that you have to get in line early for the bigger presentations ahead of time. Not only that, but I was covering news for Screen Rant plus Advanced Iron. I did have some help with the coverage for the A.I. site, but I was also limited by other factors.

I knew going in this wasn’t going to work like clockwork, but with what I’ve learned next year I’ll do things a bit differently.

All in all it was a blast and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of folks I never dreamed I’d get to see face to face including Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Terrance Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Burnett (director of one of my all time favorite movies, Free Enterprise), Michael Davis (director of the upcoming Shoot ‘em Up starring Clive Owen) and the writers of Crank and Pathology. I also spent some time talking to Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli from NBC’s Heroes) along with Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes and Spock in the upcoming Star Trek film).

It was great getting a preview of some of the bigger films to come out next year and to be surrounded by tons of other folks who are as geeked out over movies as I am.

I think two of the biggest things to come out of the Con were Beowulf and Iron Man. I think Iron Man is going to turn out to be one of the biggest movies of 2008 and as Marvel Studios’ first film is going to knock one out of the park. It’s too early to tell with The Incredible Hulk, but the panelists certainly were passionate about the project and I think they’re going to come at it from the right angle.

I don’t know how Doomsday will do as another post-apocalyptic movie, Wall-E looks great, Pathology may do well if it can escape being labeled as torture porn (which it’s not). Shoot ‘em Up is definitely worth checking out as a definite R-rated action flick… Balls of Fury could go either way – the clip they showed was pretty funny but I don’t know if the entire film will be. Although doing a send up of the classic Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon with ping pong is a pretty damned funny idea.

The clip and cast of Hot Rod had me laughing, although honestly I thought the scene they showed (which WAS funny) went on for a little bit too long, like they didn’t know when to say “when.”

I know this kind of rambled, but that’s just how it felt while there, so it’s actually quite an appropriate style for this post.

Maybe next year I’ll actually have time to walk the exhibit hall and check out all the booths…

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